The telepresence technology in the prior art is a technology of combining high-quality audio, high-definition video pictures, and interactive components, and enables users to hold a meeting through a network as if they are physically on the spot. For example, the telepresence conference system provides real-time face-to-face interaction experience for users through advanced video, audio and coordination technologies. The telepresence conference system can even provide pictures of an apartment, and create face-to-face conference experience around a virtual conference table through images of a physical size, high-definition resolution, and stereoscopic and multi-channel audio. Although the existing telepresence brings apartment conference experience which is better and more authentic than a traditional conference system, the existing telepresence is different from the real-life face-to-face communication because it provides no authentic 3D experience. The video information to a participant is only 2-dimensional planar information rather than communication information characterized by depth and hierarchy.
The existing 3D video technology provides pictures that comply with 3D visual principles and offer depth information, demonstrates the views in the real life onto the screen, and renders the scenes in depth, hierarchically, and authentically. It is a megatrend of video technologies. However, the 3D video technology has not been applied widely for lack of mature technologies, cost-efficient display devices, and standards.
The existing image stitching technology can break through the physical restriction of the imaging device and generate digital panoramic images of a wide field of view. However, the following problems exist in the image stitching: (1) It is hard to reconstruct occlusion and cavities of virtual viewpoints; (2) the original viewpoints differ sharply, the parallax is great, many more intermediate virtual viewpoint images of continuous viewpoints need to be generated, and the amount of calculation increases sharply; and (3) the parallax calculation problem is still not well solved.
Therefore, the telepresence conference system in the prior art is incapable of providing high-resolution panoramic seamless 3D conference experience.